


Finding Out

by Nemesis (ThetaSigma), ThetaSigma



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Humor, M/M, finding out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-07
Updated: 2016-02-07
Packaged: 2018-05-18 22:49:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5946208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThetaSigma/pseuds/Nemesis, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThetaSigma/pseuds/ThetaSigma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carisi finds out, through a little detective work, about his colleagues' romances and doesn't feel so left out anymore.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Finding Out

**Author's Note:**

> So all my fics really belong to one universe and there are definitely events from previous fics mentioned in this fic. It'll make sense without reading those to read this one, but I think it'll enhance the reading to have read the others first!

Fin regarded Sonny Carisi as a necessary evil. They needed more cops but that did not mean that he was at all happy to see that man’s face daily. It was not the kind of begrudging resistance that had accompanied Amanda starting – that had been purely about losing John as a partner and training a new cop, all rolled into one. Something about Carisi set his nerves on edge.

Amanda got into the car next to him, on their way to an interview. “You don’t like Carisi, do you?” she asked shortly.

“Man’s an idiot,” Fin said shortly, looking over his shoulder before making a sharp left. Amanda yelped and hung on.

“He’s really not that bad,” she defended. 

“Something about him just gets on my damn nerves,” Fin growled. “Damn, girl, can’t I get away from him in the fucking car?”

“Come on, Fin, you should give him a chance. Squad should work together, and you know Liv likes him, so any squad events are gonna feature him.”

“As long as she doesn’t leave John out,” Fin declared. “I know he’s not part of the squad anymore, but…”

“Would he still want to come?” Amanda asked. “I’m serious. New faces, new cases, new everything.”

“We’re still his friends.”

***

Carisi might have been growing on Fin, slowly but surely. The man was a good cop in the end, even if he was a bit nutty. Fin couldn’t complain about nutty too much, look who he had married. Still, that didn’t mean he was going to share anything personal with the man. Fin didn’t open up easily at all, and considered even his marital status to be semi-secret.

“He’s growing on you,” Amanda sing-songed in the car.

“He is not.” Fin scowled at her. 

“Eyes on the road!” Amanda yelled. Fin scowled some more but transferred his eyes to the road. Ah, some things never changed: John could get equally flabbergasted riding next to him.

“Admit it, the man’s a good cop.”

“What are you, his fan club president?”

“Weeell,” Amanda said hesitantly.

“Oh god.” Fin had a sudden flash a clarity. Amanda _liked_ him. 

“Well, you’ve got John and Nick left, and…” she trailed off, realizing how poorly that came out.

“I think Carisi’s got a crush on Barba,” Fin offered. “Not that Barba’ll give him the time of day; I think Barba finds him as annoying as I do.”

Amanda harrumphed at him.

***

Carisi felt left out in the squad sometimes. Sure, he joined them at the bar to celebrate a case or whatever, but it was obvious to him that he was still the newcomer, not really part of the team. He tried to get along with everyone, but Amanda teased him (which he could put up with) and Fin seemed to be permanently scowling at him.

Fin was an odd duck, and it felt like something _big_ about Fin was being hidden. Carisi had noticed the wedding ring right off but Fin never mentioned going home to his wife, any plans with his wife, anything about his wife. There were no wedding pictures on his desk, no pictures of any woman, just one photo of some old white guy.

Carisi had asked Amanda quietly once who the old guy was, and Amanda had said, “Oh, that’s Sergeant John Munch; he was Fin’s old partner. Nice guy,” and nothing more on the subject. Carisi found it very strange that Fin, who didn’t seem like a particularly sentimental person, would keep a picture of his old partner on his desk. When he prodded, Amanda just shrugged and said, “They were partners for nearly 12 years on the force,” and then said, “If you want to know more, you really should ask Fin.”

Carisi decided that if he ever wanted to find out what it was like to be eviscerated, he’d ask Fin. Otherwise, he kept his silence.

Barba, too, belittled him, which saddened Carisi. He wanted to learn a lot from Barba, the man was a _devil_ in the courtroom (and hopefully the bedroom, a small voice piped up). 

***

By now, Carisi was burning with curiosity. He knew there was some big secret regarding Fin’s marriage and he wondered what it was. Was it someone famous? One of the DAs? Another cop? Liv? Amanda? (That thought gave him a little pang, too, he had a bit of a crush on both her and Barba). Everyone else in the squad seemed to know except for him, and Fin clearly didn’t like him enough to tell him. 

He was walking through the squadroom one day when he saw, by chance, that Fin had left his phone on his desk. Carisi looked around; no one was looking. He quickly scrolled through the names, looking to see if anyone stood out or was labelled. He frowned. Someone was put in just as “Honey”. That didn’t sound like the Fin Carisi knew _at all_. He tried to imagine Fin calling someone ‘honey’ and failed. He opened the number and wrote it down quickly, resolving to call it later and settle this for once and all. 

It was several hours before Carisi could sneak outside and dial the number he had written down. This was it. He was finally going to _know_ Fin’s secret. He knew he could never _tell_ Fin, but at least he’d _know_ and not be so left out.

“John Munch,” the voice on the other line said.

Carisi almost dropped the phone in shock. _John Munch_? Fin’s old partner? A man? Carisi suddenly understood why Fin didn’t talk about this at all.

“Hello?” the voice said irritably. “Listen, I hate prank callers. Are you really just going to waste my time breathing on the other line or do you have at least something clever to say to make up for making me waste my time? Go on, I might not have heard them all yet!”

“Uh, sorry, wrong number,” Carisi said quickly and hung up. He stood outside and thought about this. He didn’t think any less of Fin for being gay – one of his cousins was gay – but it was a shock. All this time he had been thinking of who Fin’s wife could be and why Fin wouldn’t even name her, but now it all made sense: ‘John’ wasn’t exactly a gender-neutral name and cops still had to be careful. 

He headed back inside and suddenly remembered the picture on Fin’s desk. _That_ made sense, too, all of a sudden; not a sentimental attachment to his old partner but a picture of his _husband_.

Wow.

Carisi wasn’t sure he could keep this to himself.

***

He _really_ couldn’t keep this to himself, Carisi decided. He had to tell _someone_ that he knew. Liv was right out, of course, and there was no way he was telling _Fin_. Amanda seemed like a good bet, though. 

“Hey,” he said, sitting down across from her in the break room. He looked around. “Listen, I gotta tell you something.”

Amanda nodded in interest. 

“ _I know_ ,” Carisi said. “About Fin, I mean.”

Amanda looked up sharply. “What do you mean?” she asked carefully.

“I know about him and John Munch.”

“What did you do, hack into the records?” Amanda asked crossly.

“Uh, no.” Carisi held back, not wanting to admit how he _had_ found out about them.

“Well?” Amanda prompted. “I _know_ Fin didn’t tell you because I know what it took to get him to tell _me_ and let me tell you, you haven’t tried that.”

“Okay, so Fin left his phone out one day, and I was _really_ curious by then so I scrolled through his contacts and…”

“Oh _God_ ,” Amanda said, putting her head in her arms. 

Carisi shot her a confused look.

“And I found one contact that said ‘Honey’ – which doesn’t sound at all like Fin –”

Amanda made a strangled noise.

“—So I called it and John answered. What is _wrong_ with you?”

“ _Fin_ didn’t put him in as ‘Honey’, _I_ steal his phone sometimes and change John’s contact name to mess with him.”

***

“You know, Carisi’s been looking very cat in the cream the last couple of weeks,” Fin said. “Especially when he looks at me. I don’t like it.”

Amanda fidgeted. “Fin, there’s something I should probably tell you.”

“What’s up, girl?”

She took a deep breath and said in one rush, “Well, you left your phone lying on the desk one day and Carisi took a look at it and found the contact that said ‘Honey’ because I had just changed it the other day and he called it to see who you were hiding because you never talk about John and John picked up and now he knows.”

“Damn. I _knew_ that was gonna get me into trouble one day,” Fin muttered.

“You’re not mad?” Amanda asked.

“Not _happy_ that he knows, but he was bound to find out sooner or later. I should’ve changed it back to John.”

“Why didn’t you?”

Fin flushed and ducked his head. “I call him ‘honey’ sometimes,” he mumbled into his chest.

“ _Awwwwwww_ ,” Amanda cried. “You two are so cute together.”

“I should tell the little prick Barba has a crush on him, as punishment.”

“Didn’t you find out Barba and Liv were dating?” Amanda asked curiously.

“So I know it’s not punishing _Barba_. Except for, you know, having the little twerp hanging around him.”

***

To be honest, Fin wasn’t _too_ upset that Carisi knew, more upset at _how_ he had found out. He thought about how to drop a hint to him that maybe Barba was interested. He doubted he’d be there to see the guy make an idiot of himself, but the thought warmed his twisted heart.

He asked John’s opinion, the man was sneaky.

“So let me get this straight, the new guy takes a look at your phone to find out who you’re _married_ to because you refuse to be open about our love and you want to _punish_ him?” John asked indignantly.

“For the looking at my phone bit, John!”

“Well, he wouldn’t have done it if you didn’t hide me away like some medieval princess.”

Fin sighed. “John, you know I don’t open up to new people easily.” He hugged John and kissed him soundly. “Didn’t I prove my love to you when I stood up in front of all and sundry and married your sorry ass?”

“Mmm, apology accepted,” John said. “But leave new guy alone. Anyway, at some point he’s going to find out about Barba and Liv.”

***

That moment came several weeks later, when Carisi worked up the courage to ask Barba out for a drink. After all, he reasoned to himself, the man _had_ to be gay. (He knew his gaydar had fucked up badly on Fin, but he was sure of it when it came to Barba).

He knocked once and opened the door, yelped, and closed it again quickly with a ‘really sorry, sorry, God, sorry.’

Liv sighed and stopped kissing Barba. “Now I have to talk to him in the morning.”

“Better you than me,” Barba laughed. He pulled Liv in for another kiss. “About dinner….”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Comments are love <3


End file.
